Journey Maps
Constructive Design
Definition
Journey maps are a visualization of all of the touch points and pain points that a user has with a service placed on a timeline, with experiences ranking higher in satisfaction placed higher in the map and pain points placed lower. Typically, this results in a roller coaster like representation of the user experience.
“Identifying the touch points where users interact with the service is crucial. These can take many forms, from personal face to face contact between individuals, to virtual interactions with a website or physical trips to a building. ”
— Mark Stickdon, This is Service Design Thinking Pg 151
Procedure
Preparation
Gather user experience data
Create a persona to attach to the story
Creating
There are many ways to create a journey map.
The most common way is to create a time interval that you are interested in learning more about.
Then pick out important data points that you can place on that timeline
Lastly make sure to include enough detail so that the map is impactful, but keep it uncluttered so that it is easy to follow.
Presenting
When presenting a journey map it is key to preface by explaining the shapes and colors you have chosen and what they mean.
Then explain your persona
Lastly make sure to hit all of your highlight points and your suggestions for next steps.
Analysis
To get feedback on journey maps, you can either present them or share them in a digital setting. Make sure to inform those reviewing the maps about what the purpose is and encourage them to include their knowledge or customer data.
Once you have feedback, make notes of what people thought was correct and what was not. Then see what comments were made and how people think this experience can influence the service being provided.
Use Case
While creating the Plattr app, my team and I created a journey map to help us understand how people interact with cultural education and food.
Strengths
Creating a user experience journey map can be a great way to visualize and communicate the overall story of a customer and how the relevant pain points relate to that story.
Specifically, our journey map helped us identify the best way to setup our onboarding and also identified people eating near you as a potential feature.
Weaknesses
One thing that I did notice was as soon as it became apparent that I had a list of questions and that this was more than just an informal inquiry, there was a change in behavior and the cafe manager was slightly less friendly.
